Lost in the Silence
by Norberts real mummy
Summary: Lily loses the ability to talk after her brothers problem is found out. After years of silence can someone help her to find her voice again? R&R please WARNING:Alternate Universe apparently
1. The beginning

HI, this is my first fan-fiction so if you would please R&R I would be very grateful even if it is criticism; I want to know how my writing comes off.

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything recognisable as someone else's work, I am not J.K Rowling just a very crazy Potter fan!**

Chapter One: Makaton

Lily woke up on her sixth birthday to the quiet sounds of movement across the hall in her younger brothers room. Darren was a year younger than Lily and was always so quiet and no one knew why as he never listened to anyone, he would only watch people.

Lily walked to her brothers room and looked through a crack in the door, her parents were sat on the floor crying and a doctor was standing over her brothers bed, a stethoscope around his neck the only indication that he was a doctor.

She burst into the room, scared of what she would see, only to find her brother sitting on his bed playing with his bright red fire truck he'd been given last Christmas. Lily ran over and hugged him, they were close and Lily was very protective of him.

"What's wrong?" she asked, looking into the faces of her sobbing parents and then into the grim face of the doctor,

"Lily c'mere" her father, Allen, spoke softly, holding out his arms for Lily to crawl into, Lily did so and waited to be told what the matter was, "Lily honey, this is doctor Finkleman, he was just checking Darren over, and h-he found-" her mother stopped talking, overcome with grief.

"Young lady" the doctor said, kneeling in front of lily, "your brother has been found to be deaf, this means he can't hear anyone or anything, not a sound, as a result he doesn't know how to speak, and he probably never will." He stopped, letting the news sink in.

Lily was quiet for a moment, before asking "What can we do?"

Everyone looked shocked, the doctor at her level-headedness, her parents at the simpleness of the question and her sister Petunia, whom she had not seen before, over the fact her sister seemed to care so much for their brother.

"You could learn makaton" the doctor spoke first, breaking the silence, "your brother will be attending a special school where he will learn it so this way you will be able to speak with him".

And so the Evans family started a class at the local hospital where they learnt the basics of makaton, spending every Saturday evening in the cramped hospital room with other families who had a similar difficulty to theirs. Lily even started to take books out of the library down the street about it and began to pour over the books, drinking in every word so that by the time she was ten years old, she knew just about everything in makaton, and mainly spoke to her brother who had learnt it at his school.

The only problem with Lily learning sign language was that she forgot how to speak with her voice...

**Next Chapter:**

Lily gets a letter...


	2. Letters

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing recognisable...**

**Bold- **Lily

_**Bold Italics- **_Darren

_Italics- _Lily's thoughts

Chapter two: Accepting the invitation

It was the 30th of January and Lily Evans woke up to a strange tapping noise, but as she looked around she saw nothing strange and just shrugged, getting out of bed and walking into the bathroom to have a shower and brush her teeth.

"Lily dear, come down for breakfast!" her mother called up the stairs, "and please go get Darren up, you both need to get ready for school". At this lily started to get into her uniform, a navy blue skirt and blazer with a white shirt and navy blue and forest green striped tie, the green matched her eyes perfectly.

She grabbed her knee-high white socks from her drawer and ran across the hall into her brother's room, gently shaking him awake then opening his curtains. She walked over to his dresser and took out his uniform, a simple pair of school trousers and a polo shirt, she laid those out for him and then signed to him that he needed to get dressed then come down to breakfast, he just nodded and started to get out of his bed.

When lily got downstairs she was greeted by an unfamiliar sight, there was a strange old man sitting at the kitchen table. This man had a long silver beard and long silver hair to match, twinkling blue eyes looked at her from over a pair of half-moon spectacles. He was talking to her mother and father when she came to the table and sat down in her usual seat.

"Why hello Miss Evans, pleasure to meet you, I am headmaster Albus Dumbledore" he stuck out his hand for her to shake which she did slowly and cautiously. "Now I have come here today for three things, one to wish you a Happy eleventh Birthday, two to give you this" he handed he an envelope with a wax seal with a funny looking crest upon it, " and lastly to take you to Diagon Alley to fetch your supplies, that is, if you wish to attend Hogwarts".

Lily looked down at her letter, on the front of the envelope it said:

_Miss L Evans_

_The Blue Bedroom,_

_13 Dernnby Rd._

_Ireland_

The envelope was thick and heavy, lily carefully turned it over and broke the seal, two pieces of parchment falling into her hand. One was a letter addressed to her, she read it aloud,

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZADRY_

_Headmaster; Albus Dumbledore_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Miss Evans,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress_

Lily then looked at the second piece of paper, it said:

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZADRY_

_Uniform_

_First-Year Students will require:_

_1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)_

_2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear_

_3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)_

_4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)_

_Please note all pupil's clothes should carry name tags._

_Set Books_

_All students should have a copy of each of the following:_

_The Standard book of spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk_

_A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot_

_Magical Theory by Adalbert Wffling_

_The rest of your schoolbooks shall be provided for you by your teachers._

_Other Equipment_

_1 wand_

_1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

_1 set of glass or crystal phials_

_1 telescope_

_1 set brass scales_

_Students may also bring pet, the only animals allowed are those found at the Magical Menagerie in Diagon Alley._

_PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS_

To say Lily was shocked would be and understatement, she was shocked, scared, confused and excited all at the same time. The main thing she was feeling was guilt.

**I'm sorry sir, but I can't attend this school **Lily signed.

"And why not, if you don't mind me asking" was all Dumbledore asked.

**Because of my brother sir, I don't want to leave him, **Lily loved her brother, they were inseparable, she couldn't leave him on his own when Petunia was already at boarding school.

Lily felt someone tap her on the shoulder, she turned around to come face to face with Darren, he'd silently entered the room in time to see what his sister had signed. He looked at her, his green eyes that were so much like her own, gave her the encouragement she needed to accept the invitation.

She turned to Dumbledore and nodded. This September she would be attending a school of witchcraft and wizardry.

"Let me show you to Diagon Alley then, come along" and he stood up and strode over to the fireplace producing a jar full of green powder from a pocket in his robes.

**Next Chapter:**

**Diagon Alley**


	3. Diagon Alley

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING RECOGNISABLE!

I also want to thank my reviewers and anyone else who has read this so far.

_ITALICS- Thoughts_

_**Bold Italics- Darren signing**_

**Bold- Lily signing**

Just so you know 

Chapter three: Diagon Alley

Lily looked at the green powder, wondering how on earth that would help them to get to this 'Diagon Alley' place.

Dumbledore, having seen her face, explained "You use this to travel through fireplaces in the wizarding world, you're house is not connected to the floo network-"

"Floo network?" asked her mother, whom Lily realised had been taking in their entire conversation silently.

"Wizards use the floo network to travel between fireplaces, as I said before, we use this green powder which is called floo powder, place it in the fireplace, stand in the fireplace then say where we want to go and we will go there, best to keep you're elbows in though, it hurts awfully to catch them." Dumbledore explained, his blue eyes twinkling brightly when he reached the end of his explanation.

Lily just stared at him. Darren just stared at him. Petunia came in and stared at him. Mrs Evans fainted. Mr Evans ran to get some water.

"Oh dear, did I do that?" asked the kindly headmaster as he looked at a mug on the counter that read "I love you as much as I love me...and that's a lot!" that belonged to Mr Evans that Lily and Darren had given him for his birthday the year before.

**Possibly **signed Lily, whilst Petunia and Darren tried to wake their mother up. Darren looked up at Lily_** He knows makaton?**_ He signed to Lily, his face a mixture of shock and curiosity. Lily paused, she hadn't realised that before.

When Lily's mum finally woke up it was time for Lily and Dumbledore to leave.

Just as Dumbledore was about to throw the floo powder into the fireplace Lily had a sudden thought, **What about school? **

"It's only one day, and I'm sure that you wouldn't mind missing lessons on your birthday" Dumbledore replied.

Lily needed no more convincing as she took a pinch of powder and threw it into the fireplace, it was when she stepped into the fireplace when she realised she couldn't speak where she was going, she had lost her voice.

She didn't worry for long before Dumbledore stepped in beside her and held her hand. "The Leaky Cauldron" he said, loudly and clearly.

All of a sudden lily felt the wind rushing around her and all she could see in all directions were spinning fireplaces. Lily, in her amazement, forgot to tuck her elbows in, resulting in some nasty bruises.

Lily suddenly felt herself lurch forward in the air and land on the cool hard surface of someone's floor. Lily felt a long thin hand reach down and grasp her upper-arm, gently pulling her to her feet. Albus Dumbledore released her arm and led her through the small, dingy pub they seemed to have landed in to a small courtyard out the back.

Dumbledore pulled a long, ornately carved stick from his sleeve and tapped a sequence of bricks with it. The bricks slowly began to melt away, revealing the long, bright, cobbled street of Diagon Alley.

Dumbledore walked down the cheery street towards a tall, white, and slightly lop-sided building that had GRINGOTTS written above the entrance.

"The wizard bank" explained the headmaster, "safe but watch out for the goblins".

_GOBLINS?!_ Thought Lily, _This place just gets stranger and stranger..._

Once they had traded Lily's muggle money for wizarding money they bought Lily's supplies, now all that was left was a wand and the optional pet.

They walked into Ollivanders where the lights were dim and an old man was at the counter with a young boy and his parents

When they walked in a bell by the door rang, alerting the man of their presence. The greying man looked tired but his smile never wavered, he gave them a small nod before turning back to the young boy and his parents. Lily could only see the back of his head but from the looks of it he seemed to be about her age, eleven. As she was watching he picked up a stick much like the one the headmaster had used to get onto the alley, she realised this must be a wand.

The boy held the wand in his right hand and gave it a flick, one of the many aisles of boxes behind the shopkeeper collapsed and dust rose from the pile.

"Well" coughed out the man "obviously not hat wand, eh?" he picked up another and the boy did the same thing, this time one of the windows behind me shattered and shards of glass fell around me, some cutting the backs of my legs.

I released a silent scream as I clutched my bleeding calves, the boy, who had turned around when the window shattered, came rushing forwards apologising over and over.

"I am so, so, so sorry! It was an accident, I didn't mean to! Oh god I'm sorry!" he rambled, taking my arms and leading me to a chair at the side of the room. By the time he had sat me down my legs were covered in blood and glass, the adults had surrounded us as he knelt down to examine my legs.

"Remus honey leave them be and let me have a look" said the woman he was with, she had light brown hair and comforting grey-blue eyes.

Her son, who I now knew to be called Remus, moved aside and let the woman kneel in front of me. "Hello sweetie, don't worry, I am just going to check that your legs are okay and fix them up a little" she assured me with a smile.

She examined my legs and then took out what I assumed was her own wand, muttering some words the wounds cleared and healed leaving only thin white lines where they had been.

"There you go" she said helping me to stand, while she had healed me the men had been clearing the glass and repairing the window. "Now what's your name sweetie?" she asked me, finally having the chance to.

**Lily Evans** I sign. The woman just looked at me blankly, as did everyone else in the shop, only Dumbledore understood. "This is Lily Evans" he said, he then looked at me seeking confirmation to allow him to give an explanation, I give him a small nod of ascent, "she is unable to speak due to past experiences".

The lady gasped and the boy, his father and the shopkeeper all stare at me wide eyed.

I look at my feet as I feel the hot read blush spreading through my cheeks.

"Well" says the Man that I assumed to be Remus's father "I am John Lupin, this is my wife Christina and our son Remus. I must say it is a pleasure to meet you" he reaches out and takes my hand, shaking it and then releasing it before his wife swoops down and gives me a hug,_ I like these people_ I think as Remus finally shakes my hand, giving me a tired but warm smile.

"And I" says the shopkeeper "am Mr Ollivander, I own this shop and create the wands I sell".

**It's a pleasure to meet you all** I write on a piece of parchment the headmaster hands to me.

The Lupin's the headmaster and I stayed for another hour before finally finding our wands.

Remus' wand was made of chestnut and dragon heartstring, 10 inches long, it was firm.

My wand was made of Ebony, with a unicorn core it was 11 and ¼ inches and slightly springy, perfect for charms work. It also had a thin line of ivy carved into it, the leaves made of a deep emerald stone.

After this we head to the 'Leaky Cauldron' which I find out is the name of the pub we were in before. We head towards the fireplaces to return to our homes but before we leave we exchange addresses, telephone numbers (Mrs. Lupin was muggle-born like me and likes to keep her roots with her) and promise to meet outside of Kings Cross Station at half past ten on September 1st so they can show me how to get onto the platform.

After this we say our goodbyes and step into the fireplaces, calling out our addresses.

At home, after the professor left I went to my room to look through my purchases. _I think I will like this 'Hogwarts'_ I think as I go to Darren's room to show him my new wand.

When I enter Darren's room I find Darren crying in the corner with Petunia standing above him talking quietly, "She's a freak, a FREAK, but he won't listen, noooo, because he loves her more than he loves me, the freak lover" she swings around to storm out when she see's me standing there, "FREAK" she hisses in my ear as she passes.

When she leaves I go over to Darren and comfort him with stories of my day and my new friend. Darren just looks at me before he says _**You wont forget me will you? You will write and visit when you can, yeah?**_

**How can you even ask that, of course I will! **I reply before we curl up on his bed, I was tired from my day of shopping and he from crying, so we fell asleep, fully clothed on his bed holding each other knowing that soon we won't be able to do this when we need to. We had to make the most of our time together.

**Next Chapter:**

Platform 9 ¾


	4. September 1st

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING RECOGNISABLE!

I also want to thank my reviewers and anyone else who has read this so far.

_ITALICS- Thoughts_

_**Bold Italics- Darren signing**_

**Bold- Lily signing**

Just so you know 

Chapter 4: September 1st

.BEEP.

I reached my hand out from under the duvet and slammed it down on the snooze button, hoping to get a few more hours sleep. _Why the hell did I set that thing anyway?_ Is all that is going through my mind as I snuggle further into my pillow.

Just as I'm about to doze off again I hear my door slam open and barely register the fact that someone is in my room before someone jumps on me. I move my blankets out of the way and roll over to spot Darren sitting by my feet, a huge grin lighting his face. His blonde hair was un-brushed and his clothes wrinkled, but he had never looked happier.

It's at this point that I turn quickly to look at the calendar by my bed. September 1st. Hogwarts.

I leap out of bed, knocking Darren off of the end, **Sorry** I sign quickly as I grab a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and head into the bathroom. After a nice warm shower I get dressed and brush my hair and teeth. Just as I'm finishing putting my hair into a bun at the top of my head, there is a loud banging from the door. I quickly finish and open it to Petunia who shoves past me and slams the door in my face.

Breakfast was loud that morning. Mum and Dad were arguing playfully over who was going to drive. Petunia was moaning about having to be up early for the freak, as was my new nickname from her. And Darren and I ate hungrily; we had always had the largest appetites, whilst signing to each other across the table.

"I am the better driver Allen"

_**Pass the Jam?**_

"Mum I don't have to go, do I?"

"Helen sweetie stop trying to convince me you're the better driver, you know it's not true"

**Blueberry or Strawberry?**

_**Have we got orange flavour?**_

"I am NOT going!"

"No dear I'm the best"

**That's marmalade dufus!** This goes on until nine a.m. At this point we all go to the fireplace, Dumbledore had connected us to the floo network especially for this. We had to floo to the our grandmothers house in Surrey and then drive to kings cross station from there.

Because of mine and Darren's problems we each had to go with mum or dad. As we floo'ed to granny's house, me holding Dad's hand, I realised that Petunia wouldn't be coming, she was last to leave and wouldn't come now we couldn't make her. _She's gonna be in trouble!_

When we arrived in the stuffy living room we walked out to the drive where our grandmother's old Ford Anglia stood, ready to take us to Kings Cross station.

At the station stood waiting to meet the Lupin's between platform's 9 and 10.

Glancing around the crowded station I looked for the family I'd met in Diagon Alley. It didn't take me long to find the tall, tired frame that belonged to Remus Lupin, I stood on my tiptoes, waving my arms frantically above my head to catch his attention.

Soon enough I was stood with the Lupin's, getting ready to say goodbye to my family before I had to get onto the platform.

I glance up at the clock on the station wall, it was half past ten, that gave me half an hour to say goodbye and get settled on the train. I turned to my parents to say goodbye.

My dad came up to me first, lifting me into his arms easily, I had always been of average height but my dad was far taller than average. "Goodbye my angel, have fun, write to us," he says "and no boyfriends" he teases before kissing my cheek and putting me back on the floor, only to allow my mother to engulf me in her arms crying about how her baby was "all grown up". Finally she let go and said goodbye.

I turned to the last person I had to say goodbye to. Tears dripped down my face as I looked at Darren, he was smiling broadly but the tears were still visible in his eyes.

_**Will you miss me?**_

**More than anything. Will you miss me?**

_**Loads!**_

We embrace each other for a while before we pull away laughing and crying at the same time. I give him a quick peck on the cheek before picking up my trunk and walking towards the Lupin's.

"Right, now Lily, to get onto the platform you just need to run through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10" Mrs Lupin told me, her smile never wavering. Lily's eyes widened fractionally before Remus gave her an encouraging nod.

Taking a deep breath Lily lined herself up with the barrier, closed her eyes, and jogged forwards, waiting for the impact that was sure to come.

I don't know what I was expecting but a bright red steam-engine was not what I had in mind.

A few other families were dotted around the station, and looking at the clock on the wall, I realise it was only about twenty to eleven. Plenty of time to get settled.

I walked along the train to the back carriage and found an empty compartment. I then attempted to get my luggage into the compartment. It didn't seem to be working.

I was standing in the compartment, trying to tug the trunk in when the other end got lifted. I looked up into the eyes of one Mr. John Lupin. Mr. Lupin helped me to put my trunk in the overhead carry-rack and then turned around and revealed Remus and Mrs. Lupin with another trunk coming through the compartment door. One Remus's trunk was settled next to mine we finally had a chance to talk.

Mr and Mrs Lupin leaned through the window to look at us sitting down.

"Hello again Lily" greeted Mrs. Lupin, winking at me.

I smiled at them, amused.

Seeing the look on my face Mr. Lupin shot me a reassuring smile, "Don't worry, ever since we met you Remus here has been studying that Makaton you use. Very good at it to, aren't you son?"

"I'm alright" Remus said, looking at his feet as his cheeks turned red.

"Oh don't be so modest dear, you are brilliant! My husband and I also learnt a little, but we aren't as good as our Remus is" said Mrs. Lupin.

After talking for a bit the whistle sounded and the train began to slowly move out of the station. Mr and Mrs Lupin called out their goodbyes and reminders and then disappeared in the crowd of parents...

Just as the train was about to leave the station I saw a head of dark hair darting towards us, calling for the train to wait.

Without thinking, I ran to the door flinging it wide open and holding onto the frame for dear life whilst holding my hand out to the boy who took a running leap and grabbed my hand.

The boy had managed to get his feet onto the train step but had no balance and we would have both fallen out if I hadn't felt two sets of hands grab my waist and tug me back inside, the boy being tugged in also. We landed in a heap on the floor, me on top of someone with the dark haired boy on top of me. I saw Remus dart to the door and slam it closed, breathing heavily.

"Eurgh" came a noise from beneath me,

"Ouch" came a voice from above.

I started to wave my arms a bout **Can't breath get off me!** Remus saw and understood, grabbing the boy and dragging him off of me, I sat up breathing heavily. Remus and the dark haired boy collapsed on the train seats. "Thanks" said the boy, still panting from the dangerous situation. Or the running, I'm not sure.

I just give him a nod, still trying to catch my breath.

"Excuse me, but would you mind moving please?" came a strangled voice, I realised that I was still on top of someone, I leapt up and span around, looking down at the person I had fallen on. He had black hair that was incredibly messy and warm chocolate eyes, twinkling with excitement, his eyes were covered by a pair of glasses.

**I am so sorry, I forgot you were under there, under me, and I am so sorry** I sign, feeling very guilty for hurting him.

The boy with glasses and the boy with dark hair both looked at me strangely while Remus sat laughing in the corner.

**What?** I ask.

"Sorry" says glasses "but what are you doing?"

Oh. They can't read sign language. I felt so stupid.

Remus was still laughing, I clap my hands, gaining his attention.** Remus, Translate! **I glare at him until he agrees. "God lil's, who knew you could be so pushy!" I glare harder.** Just translate and explain when they ask.**

The boys continue to watch us curiously before Remus finally gives in and speaks. "She's using sign language" he says in his soft, calm voice.

"Why?" asks the one with dark hair, glasses "Sirius, you dolt! She is probably mute" he lowers his voice to the end, not wanting me to hear and take offense. I ignore that.

Glasses turns back to look at us, "oh, well can you translate for us then?" he asks politely, but it triggers something inside of me and my famous red-head temper lets loose. **I am not deaf you idiot! Just because I can't speak doesn't mean I can't hear what you're saying, what are you? Stupid?** Remus and the boy's stare at me wants my rant is over, "She says she isn't deaf and that she can hear you just fine" Remus translates, _why the cheek, altering my words!_ I glare at him but he just shrugs in return.

"Oh, well, okay then. Hi. I'm James Potter and the idiot over there that caused this whole mess, is Sirius Black" We turn and see Sirius giving us a small wave, a guilty smile is etched on his face. I nod at each of them, as does Remus.

It's silent for a second before I give Remus a small kick in the shin, "OW, no need for violence Lil's!" he says, rubbing his shin and glaring at me as I take a seat by the window opposite him. I shrug.

"Fine. I'm Remus Lupin and this here;" he gestures at me "is Lily Evans."

The boys wave and then fall silent.

After a few uncomfortable minutes of silence I clap, startling the boys, I silently laugh at their expressions. **So how do you boys know each other?** Remus translates my question.

"Well" says Sirius, who gives off to be anything but serious, "we live across the lane from each other"

"Lane?" asks Remus, who lives in a flat with his parents, the closest he has to a lane is the hallway outside.

"We live in the country, in Cornwall" Says James. "What about you two? How do you know each other? And how come you can do sign language?" his last question was directed at Remus.

As the train ride continued Remus and I became friends with the two rowdy boys and had a lot of fun together.

When the train pulled into the station it was dark outside, "Please leave all of your luggage on the train and make sure you are wearing your uniform, Thank You" said the conductor's voice from little speakers in the train.

Once we got off the train we heard a voice calling out "firs' years over 'ere please" We walked towards the voice and came face to face with a man who couldn't be much older than Tom the barman but was at least triple Tom's height and god knows how much wider.

It was because of this and the cold air outside after the warm train, that caused my sight to go black...

**Next chapter:**

**The sorting hat**


	5. The Sorting and The Feast

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING RECOGNISABLE!

I also want to thank my reviewers and anyone else who has read this so far.

_ITALICS- Thoughts_

_**Bold Italics- Darren signing**_

**Bold- Lily signing**

Just so you know 

P.S. I'm sorry I change the way I write from 3rd person to another, I just forget how I'm writing and change frequently! Please forgive me, I can be a bit of a forgetful person!

Chapter 5: The Sorting and The Feast

_So cold_ was the only thought going through my head.

I felt something warm next to me, curled around my sides, _Hold on, I'm moving!_ My eyes shot open revealing four faces staring at me, I jolted up quickly, startled by how close they were. The only problem with this is that the fourth face belonged to the giant man who's arms I had been in until that moment when I fell out of his grasp onto 3 shocked boys who had been crowded around him.

"ARGH!"

CRASH!

We landed in a heap, me on top.

"Cn smne mv pls?"

**What?**

"Come on girly, up we get"

I felt myself being pulled to my feet and looked up into the face of the giant man, I just stared for a moment until I heard three different calls of help from a pile by my feet, I quickly turned around and helped James and Remus to untangle themselves so they could get off of Sirius, who was by far, the smallest of the three.

"Thank you!" panted Sirius when he sat up, free of bodies and extra weight.

"Righ' now that's over, we can get up te' the school, follow me please" Said the giant man as he started to walk towards a dock at the end of the station, the rest of the fist year students all followed him towards the boats and boarded, afraid of what would happen if they didn't.

I, now over my fear and a lot warmer thanks to the excitement walked up to the boat the giant man was in and sat in the opposite end, leaving the boys to get into another boat with a small pudgy boy.

**What's your name?** I signed, forgetting he probably couldn't understand me until after I signed it.

"I'm Rubeus Hagrid" He replied, a mischievous sparkle in his eyes.

**You can understand me?** I rarely met someone who could understand Makaton and when I did it was usually a specially trained doctor who had come to visit Darren and me.

"O 'course I do!" he laughed,

**How?**

"The reason you're here, magic" he winked at me before hopping out of the boat onto the land we had just reached. I stared up at Hogwarts, I gasped at the beauty it projected, lit up in the night sky, an unforgettable sight.

James, Sirius and Remus came up next to me with their new friend from the boat.

"Hey Lil's-"

**Lil's?**

"This is Peter" James gestured to the short boy beside them that they had met on the boat.

Peter waved at me but stayed silent, staring at his shoes.

As we walked through the giant doors that led inside I caught a glimpse of a brunette woman standing at the top of a main staircase, she was incredibly beautiful, her hair hung in loose ringlets to her shoulders and she wore green velvet robes and a matching pointed hat, a pair of glasses sat on the bridge of her nose.

"Good evening, I am Professor McGonagall. Welcome to Hogwarts!" The young witch greeted us warmly. "The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is very important and has been around since Hogwarts was founded. The house that you are sorted into will be a, sort of, family to you for your next seven years here, you will sleep in your house dormitory and spend most of your recreational time in you house common room."

_Woah! This place must be huge if all the students have to fit in here!_ I thought as I stared at Professor McGonagall.

"The houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, more will be explained to you in your first lesson tomorrow morning. Now, lets get you all sorted shall we?" she asked us all, smiling warmly the whole time.

Professor McGonagall led us into the Great Hall, a giant room with four house tables in the middle and a fifth table for the teachers at the front, it had a high stone ceiling and tall windows, it was magnificent but there was a sense of magic missing from the room.

We were all led to a stool at the front of the house tables, on this stool sat a battered hat and a scroll.

"Everyone please gather at these steps, thank you. Now when I call your name you will come, sit on the stool, place the sorting hat on your head and you will be sorted into your houses, first lets hear the annual song!"

As if by magic (A/N: I really wanted to use that ) The wrinkles of the hat formed a face, and the wrinkles that became a mouth began to move.

'_Oh you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave at heart,_

_Their daring, nerve and chivalry_

_Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

_And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

_If you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folks use any means_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

_For I'm a Thinking Cap!'_

The older students and professors all began to clap whilst the first years just stared in wonder at the cap, eventually all was silent until...

"You mean we really DON'T have to fight a troll?!" I span around to see James gaping at the hat.

Laughter soon flooded the hall as everyone laughed at the thought.

"Now that little show is over, lets get on with the sorting!"

McGonagall picked up the scroll and began to read the names alphabetically.

"Abbott, Elliot!"

A short blonde boy tripped over his own feet on his way to the stool. He quickly put the hat on, which fell over his eyes and waited to be sorted.

'_HUFFLEPUFF!'_ was called by the hat, causing me to jump and knock into a sallow faced boy beside me, he just scowled at me before facing the front again.

Elliot quickly ran off to a table adorned in yellow that was cheering quite loudly, _Hufflepuff Table_ I assumed.

The sorting Continued.

"Black, Bellatrix"

'_SLYTHERIN'_ A table adorned in green began to cheer and the girl skipped off happily to join them.

"Black, Sirius" _Oh, it's Sirius's turn!_

'_GRYFFINDOR!'_ Silence took over the Great Hall before the table adorned in red began to clap slowly and Slytherin table boo'ed and hissed._ I'll have to ask him about that later_ I thought.

"Bones, Amanda!"

'_RAVENCLAW!'_ The blue table applaused.

"Bones, Ethan!"

'_HUFFLEPUFF!'_

The bones twins walked their separate ways.

"Boot, Archie!"

'_RAVENCLAW!'_

"Brocklehurst, Martin"

'_RAVENCLAW!'_

"Brown, Franklin"

'_GRYFFINDOR!'_

"Bulstrode, Charles"

'_SLYTHERIN!'_

"Evans, Lily" _Oh no, My turn_ I felt the blood rush from my face as I took my first wobbly steps towards the stool, I sat on the cool wood and felt the hat cover the top portion of my head and face.

_Ah, what do we have here? I see kindness through you, oh yes! And a fiery temper to counter it, but_ _what is this, Courage? Bravery! You are full of it! I know where to put you now..._

'_GRYFFINDOR!'_

I tore the hat off my head and raced to the Gryffindor table, where Sirius was cheering the loudest!

"Finch, Flora"

'_HUFFLEPUFF!'_

"Fletchley, Ryan!"

'_HUFFLEPUFF!'_

"Longbottom, Frank!" was called up, I had to elbow Sirius to stop him laughing but there was nothing I could do about James as he was still in line, but a petite brunette girl took care of him for me with a kick to his shins.

'_GRYFFINDOR!'_

"Lupin, Remus!" Was finally called!

'_GRYFFINDOR!'_The moment the hat spoke Sirius and I began to clap as loud as possible, Sirius also cheering his head off, Remus came and sat opposite Sirius, diagonally from me.

**Congratulations!**

"Thanks Lil's!"

I beamed at him then turned and smiled at Sirius as we listened to the rest of the sorting. Finally we got to the "P's"

"Pettigrew, Peter" was sorted into Gryffindor along with "Patill, Paul".

Next was James.

"Potter, James!"

'_GRYFFINDOR!'_

"Prewitt, Alice" The girl who kicked James was called forward.

'_GRYFFINDOR!'_

Alice came and sat between me and Frank, James was opposite me and gave her a glare before I kicked him in his other shin.

After Headmaster Dumbledore finished talking the feast appeared.

**Remus, introduce everyone please?** I asked after I caught his attention, gesturing towards our other classmates.

"Sorry Lily!" he said, turning to the other first years we hadn't met yet "Hi, I'm Remus Lupin, this is lily Evans" I waved "James Potter and Sirius Black, nice to meet you all!"

The girl beside me, Alice, smiled "Hi! I'm Alice Prewitt, it's nice to meet all of you!"

Frank Longbottom introduced himself, rather shyly. The other girls just stuck their noses in the air and turned away from us, I rolled my eyes before turning to the last three boys.

"I-I'm P-Peter!" said the pudgy blonde boy from next to James. The brunette boy introduced himself as Paul Patill before turning to talk to Frank who was opposite him, and the last boy who introduced himself as Franklin Brown.

Alice decided to talk to us instead of join the other snobbish girls.

"So, y'all excited 'bout being in Gryffindor? I am, both my brothers were and my sister are in Gryffindor, it runs in the family I guess!" though she seemed to ramble I decided I liked Alice and that she would be a good friend.

All the boys confirmed their pleasure of being put in Gryffindor, James and Sirius a bit more enthusiastically than Remus. Alice then turned to me and asked me if I was excited.

I began to panic, she wouldn't understand me, I looked to Remus for help when Sirius butted in, "Oh she won't answer you she's mute!" I stared at Sirius shocked he would say something so rudely and loud enough for our end of Gryffindor table to hear and turn and stare. I felt my face turn red then the hot tears running over my cheeks, I stood and bolted out of the doors into the entrance hall. I continued to run up staircases and along corridors until I was out of breath, then I sat in a corner or the dark corridor and sobbed uncontrollably.

After what seemed like forever I heard the faint sound of footsteps getting closer quickly. Eventually the footsteps were loud enough for me to tell the person was just around the corner, and to tell there were three people coming not just one.

I looked up as the footsteps came around the corner to see Remus and Alice running towards me with an older girl with red hair who looked similar to Alice in some ways.

"Lily! We've been looking everywhere!" Remus skidded to a stop and sat beside me and put his arm around me.

"Yeah! When you left everyone panicked 'cos you would get lost so I got my sister, Molly, to take me and Remus to find you!" Alice dropped in front of me and pulled me into a rib cracking hug, only letting go when I pat her back to signal I couldn't breath.

"Why'd you get so upset in there? So what, you can't talk? Big deal! My brother Fabian is blind in one eye! Quite funny actually, 'specially when you put things where he can't see and he trips over them!" she laughed before looking at Molly and seeing her disapproving stare, then she stopped and looked at the floor sheepishly.

"What Alice is trying to say Lily is that you don't need to be afraid of your disability, the people worth knowing will understand and accept your situation" said Molly.

I nodded, drying my eyes on my sleeve, **Thank you** I signed.

"You're welcome" replied Molly.

**You understand me?**

"Our cousins partially deaf so we had to learn sign language for him!" explained Alice.

For the first time since the sorting I felt truly happy, people who understood me!

Back at the feast Sirius apologised and we ate the wonderful food which, Alice explained, Creatures called house elves created in the kitchens underneath the Great Hall. After this Molly and her boyfriend Arthur Weasley led all the first years to the common room and explained what they could on the way, they did this because they were Prefects.

After they showed us to the common room they left to go to the Heads Common room on the floor below.

"Well then, Goodnight girls!" Sirius said as he and the boys started to head up the stairs to their dorm.

**Hold up just a second! Girls?! We are Ladies!** Lily gestured, stepping in their way so they would see me.

"What?"

"Huh?"

"Sorry Lily!" Remus exclaimed.

"Why? What's wrong?" asked James.

"We offended her by calling them 'Girls'!" Remus explained to the first year boys around him.

"But why? They are girls!" Sirius was promptly wacked over the head by James for his stupidity, "Sorry 'bout him, and sorry we offended you! Forgive us?" Lily and Alice nodded and bid the boys good night before climbing up the stairs to their dormitory.

When Lily and Alice entered their dormitory they were greeted with the noise of eleven year old girls, these girls would be their roommates for the next seven years.

**Shall we introduce ourselves?** Lily asked Alice, Alice nodded her agreement and turned to their roommates who had all stopped and watched the exchange when they saw the two girls come in.

"Um, Hi! I'm Alice Prewitt and this is Lily Evans," Lily kicked her shin then gestured to her mouth, "who would like you to know that she is mute. And if any of you say anything horrible about it I will personally make your life hell as she is a lovely person and, and I'm getting off track! Anyway, nice to meet you all" Alice finished talking and the girls moved towards the two unoccupied beds and sat down on their own.

"Hi, I'm Marlene Mckinnon! Half-Blood witch and it's just awesome to meet you! I wasn't at the beginning of the feast and they sorted me before you two came back with that pale fellow!" Marlene was a brunette girl with sparkling blue eyes and a chipper personality, her bed was next to Lily's and Lily's was opposite Alice's. The other girls just rolled their eyes and got into bed muttering something that sounded like "Worthless" before drawing their hangings and going to sleep.

"Just ignore them, biggest bunch of Blood Racist snobs I've ever met! First thing they asked me when I walked in was my blood status, bleurch, disgusting!"

**Blood Racist?** Lily asked, having never heard the term as she was muggleborn.

"Oh I'm sorry, I don't know Makaton! Hmmm... I could learn though!" Marlene exclaimed, feeling bad that she couldn't talk to Lily on her own without a parchment and quill.

"Don't worry about it for now Marlene, She asked what blood racism is!" Alice supplied.

"Oh, you must be muggleborn, come from muggles?" Lily nodded, "Well there are three main types of "Blood" in the wizarding world, Muggleborn where you are from a family of muggles, Half-blood where you have one wizarding parent and one muggle parent, then there's Pureblood which is when you are from a completely wizarding family! Then you have good and bad blood, people who believe in that are usually bad wizards, evil wizards! They believe that those who associate with muggles and muggleborns are "Blood Traitors"! Horrid if you ask my opinion!" Once Marlene was finished Lily looked at her in horror.

"My family, the Prewitt's are seen as blood traitors, so are the Weasley's, Potters would be to if they weren't so high up in society!" Alice said.

**Well that's lovely, how can people be so horrible about other people? Well anyway, I suggest we go to bed now, big first day tomorrow! Goodnight guys!** Lily then went into the bathroom to get ready for bed. Once she was changed and had brushed her teeth she went back into the dorm room and climbed into bed, both looking forward to and dreading her first day!

**Next chapter:**

**The first day...**


	6. First year Part 1

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING RECOGNISABLE!

I also want to thank my reviewers and anyone else who has read this so far.

P.s. SOOOOOOO SORRY it's taken me so long to update! I had exam week and the summer holidays only started on the 20th and the only times I've had to write are when I've been babysitting (which I'm doing now)! Mainly because I spend so much time reading fanfiction! As you can probably see if you look at my favourites XD anyway it's the 21st of July now at quarter to 11 at night and I'm going to finish typing this chapter (or try to) and hopefully update it tomorrow!

_ITALICS- Thoughts_

_**Bold Italics- Darren signing**_

**Bold- Lily signing**

Just so you know 

P.S. I'm sorry I change the way I write from 3rd person to another, I just forget how I'm writing and change frequently! Please forgive me, I can be a bit of a forgetful person!

Chapter 6: First Year

Lily woke up on the first day of school, when somebody jumped on her bed screaming.

"Good Morning Lillian!" _Great,_ Lily thought, _School!_ She rolled over and sat up causing Alice to fall onto the hardwood floor with a THUMP!

"Well thanks for that Lil's!" Alice commented sarcastically as she picked herself off the floor and moved over to her bed to collect her things for the school day.

Lily climbed out of bed and walked into the bathroom to have a shower and get changed. When she had finished she walked out to find Alice waiting for her, "Marlene's saving us seats down at breakfast and Molly's waiting in the common room to show us the way down, c'mon!" Alice started to head out of the room when she realised Lily wasn't following her, she turned around to see Lily grabbing her bag off her bed and hurrying to catch up.

When they got to the common room they saw that Molly had gained a group of first year boys, all of the first year Gryffindor boys to be exact.

"Popular aren't you Moll's!" stated Alice as the two girls walked over to the group.

"Very funny Ally! But I'll be the one laughing when you get the howler at breakfast from mum and dad!" Molly laughed at her sister's horrified expression.

**What's a Howler?** Asked Lily, not having heard the term before.

"You'll see" said a voice from behind her, she whirled around to see Remus smiling down at her, for an eleven year old he was very tall.

Lily decided it would be best to do what he said and wait until she saw what it was, she walked down the many staircases to the Great Hall listening to the conversations around her, upset she couldn't contribute and keep walking at the same time.

When they reached the Great Hall the girls spotted Marlene and went to sit with her, the boys followed them, and Molly walked off to sit with her boyfriend Arthur Weasley.

"Morning Alice, Morning Lily, Morning...boys?" Marlene looked at the girls questioningly as the boys sat next to them.

**They sat with us because they needed to see what awesomeness looked like and we are the most awesome people in the world so they stalked us** Lily signed, at this Alice burst out laughing and Remus made a sound of indignation.

"Hey! That's not true!"

**Sorry, I meant that it was because I am the light of their lives and they need me to survive** Lily was thoroughly enjoying this but the thought that only two of the people around her understood her took the fun away from it and she just continued to eat in silence, not acknowledging anyone even the boys when Remus explained what she had signed.

As soon as she could Lily picked up her timetable from the table, grabbed her bag and walked to her first lesson of the day, Potions. The only reason she knew where she was going was because she was following the Professor, Professor Slughorn, as he walked to the classroom in the dungeons, eating sugared pineapple pieces on the way.

When Lily reached the classroom, which was in the dungeons, she found a seat at the front and got out everything she would need for the class: Parchment, Quill, Ink, Cauldron, Ingredients. Once this was done she went to the back of the classroom where all the cupboards were and found the correct potions book she would need and took it back to her space.

As Lily started to read the Introduction chapter of the book the bell rang and students began spilling into the room for class. Lily put down the book in time to see Alice, Marlene and a sallow faced Slytherin boy, sit at her table and take out their supplies.

Minutes later, when the room had quietened down, Professor Slughorn stood in front of the class and began to talk to the first year Gryffindors and Slytherins.

"Oh ho, well, welcome to Hogwarts! I am Professor Horace Slughorn, Potions Master and Head of Slytherin house! Now, let's begin with a register so we can learn who everyone is shall we? Right-o then!" The professor then proceeded with the register, Once he was finished he continued the lesson.

"Now, I'm here to teach you how to brew potions and to learn the basic theory behind them. Today you will be brewing a very simple potion called 'Bubble Syrum' which I thought would be a rather jolly potion to start off with. Now the theory and procedure for making the potion is on the board, I would like you to copy both down before you begin. Today you will be working individually so I can see what level you're all working at. Got that? Good, begin." With that he sat behind his desk and watched us for the remainder of the lesson.

Lily quickly scrawled down the notes, struggling a little with the quill, and then proceeded to set up her equipment and ingredients.

As she was lighting a fire to boil the water in her cauldron, she looked across at the sallow faced boy beside her, she realised he looked a little sad so she stuck out her hand for him to shake, he just stared at her before turning back to his potion.

_Well!_ She thought _that was rude!_ But instead of pursuing with the boy she began to concoct her 'Bubble Syrum' Once Lily had followed all the instructions she looked into her pot to find her potion had turned the blue colour it was supposed to have gone. But looking around her table she realised only the boy had also been successful. Marlene's potion, whilst being blue, was too pale and full of lumps no matter how much she continued to stir it. Alice's potion was even worse, a dark purple in colour and it was becoming gas so quickly the only thing Alice could do was put a lid on her cauldron so it wouldn't be breathed in by the other students.

After another half hour Professor Slughorn began to look at the students' work. The only Slytherin who had gotten it right was the sallow faced boy, Severus Snape. The rest of the Slytherins potions were striking shades of green and yellow and were as thick as cold porridge. Only two Gryffindors were successful, Lily and Remus shared a smile as their potions were praised, the other Gryffindors fared similar results to the Slytherins and Marlene's results, though no one's were as bad as Alice's and peter's, who's potion looked like someone had mixed corn flour and water together then added fluorescent orange colouring to it.

The rest of the day continued much the same for the students, learning new things and finding subjects that they were strong in, and others that they were weak in.

Lily was strong in both Potions, DADA and Charms, weak in Transfiguration and Herbology and was one of the only ones who could stay awake in History of Magic.

Alice was brilliant at Herbology, and DADA but struggled with the other classes, especially Potions.

Marlene was a whiz in History of magic and DADA, average in charms and transfiguration but again was very bad in Potions and struggled in Herbology where the plants seemed to like biting and scratching her.

The boys all had weaknesses and strong points in the lessons to but they were more concerned about the flying lessons they were scheduled to have the next day.

After breakfast the next day the students headed out for flying lessons on the quidditch pitch (Lily had spent the entire evening previously having the game explained to her).

When they got to the pitch they saw two lines of brooms, they were all told to stand by a broom and say 'Up', this worried Lily, _ How am I supposed to _tell_ the broom what to do?_. Lily stood to the left of a broom that was between Remus and Marlene's brooms and attempted to get the broom to fly into her hand 4-5 times before she grasped hold of it, glad that no one noticed her silent struggle with the broomstick.

Once everyone had hold of their brooms they were told to mount their brooms and kick off, everyone did this successfully...except Lily. Lily fell off her broom because she wasn't holding on correctly and plummeted to the ground where she landed with a soft CRUNCH!

When Lily lifted her face from the ground, everyone who had gathered around her got to see the generous amount of blood pouring down her chin and the broken nose she was sporting thanks to face planting the quidditch field.

The flying instructor then instructed Alice and a boy called Frank Longbottom to escort her to the hospital wing.

Later that evening when Lily was getting into bed, her nose had been fixed in second by the school nurse Madame Pomfrey, she vowed to improve her broom skills and become good enough to join the quidditch team when she reached third year.

Every weekend Lily snuck out to the Quidditch Pitch with one of the school brooms and practiced flying, by October she could pull off numerous twists and dives. None of her friends knew of this though, as she managed to keep it secret and to sneak out while the others were doing their homework, they didn't notice as it wasn't like she made any noise to begin with. What she didn't know is that two people knew all about her sneaking out, and one of those people was worried about the consequences her night time excursions would do for her safety, but said nothing.

Soon enough December came, and with it,

"It's my BIRTHDAY!" Sirius screamed as he entered the Great hall on the 13th.

"Quiet please Mr. Black, and Happy Birthday!" said Professor McGonagall as she passed him on her way out. Sirius continued to walk over and join his friends.

"Happy Birthday Siri!" everyone said, using the nickname he hated so much.

Lily just gave him a hug, which he appreciated all the same.

After Sirius opened his gifts they headed to the common room, seeing as his birthday fell on a Saturday they decided to spend the whole day playing games by the fire.

**So what should we do first?** Lily asked. Marlene, who had spent all of her free time learning sign language, answered "I don't know, why don't we let Siri dearest chose? What should we do now Siri?"

Sirius thought for a moment before speaking "Eat!"

The others looked at him questioningly, "What? I'm a growing boy and a growing boy got to eat!" Everyone burst out laughing at his response. That's how the first year students spent their day, eating, talking and joking around.

The next week the school broke up for the Christmas Holidays, those going home had left the day before and only a few students were left in Gryffindor tower.

Lily, Alice, Marlene and Molly all stayed, so did James, Remus, Sirius, Peter and Arthur Weasley. Molly and Arthur only stayed so they could have some private time. James's parents were going on a second honeymoon, Sirius didn't get along with his family and Peter followed those two everywhere so he stayed too. Alice and Marlene stayed to keep Lily company and because the Prewitt's were going skiing in Italy and Alice couldn't ski to save her life. Lily and Remus stayed because Remus's parents had promised to come and visit them and had decided to bring Darren with them so Lily could see him without going home to Petunia.

Lily and Remus were looking forward to Christmas Eve, when Mr and Mrs Lupin were coming to Hogwarts with Darren, they were staying until the evening of boxing day.

"What's got you two so happy looking?" James asked as he sat across from the two at breakfast the day before Christmas Eve.

"My parents are coming to visit tomorrow for Christmas!" Remus said happily as he buttered a piece of toast.

"Ok, that doesn't explain why you're nearly jumping up and down Lily" James turned his gaze to Lily, the rest of their friends just listened and watched carefully as they ate their breakfast.

**Remus's parents are bringing my brother with them tomorrow! I've missed him so much!** Lily really was jumping up and down now.

"Oh that's nice for you" James said, pretending he had a clue what she said as Remus snuck a napkin to him under the table that had the explanation on it.

Lily woke up early on Christmas Eve, at about 5am to be exact. She rolled over and got out of bed still wrapped in her bed covers, it was cold in the tower and she was very warm as it was. She padded carefully past Alice, Molly and Marlene (Molly was staying in the girls' room so she wouldn't be alone) and snuck out of the dormitory towards the common room. Once in the common room Lily sat on the rug by the fire that was still burning brightly, she stared into the flames and thought of flying on the quidditch pitch and how she wished she could show the others what she could do.

At about 8 o'clock James walked down the stairs to find a lump of fabric by the fire, he moved cautiously towards it, not afraid of what he would find, well that's what he would tell people anyway.

As James neared the pile he realised it wasn't just a pile of fabric, but a breathing pile of fabric, and as he pulled back a corner he realised it was Lily underneath it, she had fallen asleep by the fire and was now dreaming of something nice, if the look on her face was anything to go by.

Lily awoke from her nap when she felt cold air brush against her cheeks, and as her eyes opened she realised she was looking into another pair of eyes. A BROWN pair of eyes. She scrambled back quickly so as to get away from the strangers gaze, and when she looked up again she realised it was not a stranger, but James.

**What are you doing awake?** She signed, recovering from her shock of waking to his face inches from her own.

"Sorry?" James looked confused, Lily began scrambling for a piece of parchment and a quill that someone had left on the table the night before.

**What are you doing awake?** This time James knew what she asked as she wrote it down for him.

"Sirius was snoring again, I couldn't sleep with him making that much noise! Surely you could hear it?"

**I thought it was thunder** she scrawled cheekily, they both laughed at this and relaxed, the tension was broken.

"So you know why I'm here, but I don't know why you're here!" he said after getting control of his laughing fit. He phrased it as a question so she answered, though a bit reluctantly.

**I couldn't sleep, I was too worried about my brothers visit** she wrote hesitantly, afraid of sharing so much with James.

"Why? Don't you want him to come?"

**Of course I do! I'm just worried that no one will like him, or people will act weird around him because he can't hear or something** Lily turned her eyes on James showing him the now unveiled panic within them.

"I'm sure no one will do that! But if they do he'll know he has his big sister to help him and all of her friends too!" James smiled at her, hoping to relieve some of her obvious panic.

Lily smiled back at him, the morning rays bouncing off of his glasses. _Morning rays?_ She thought, _that means that in..._ she grabbed James' wrist and looked at the watch that he always wore, it was now 8:30 in the morning, _in an hour and a half I'll get to see Darren again!_

Lily signed a quick thank you to James before leaping off the couch, stumbling over the ends of her duvet, and sprinting up the stairs two at a time too her dorm room, effectively waking up the entire tower when she slammed the door open with so much force it almost broke free of its hinges and flattened her. Luckily it did not.

After laughing at the complaints of her dorm mates (plus molly) Lily made it to the bathroom, where she had the quickest shower of her lifetime (15 minutes! What? She has lots of hair that needs washing, she doesn't want to look like Snape!) and changed as quickly as she could without causing herself or anything else any harm.

When she left the bathroom, smiling excitedly in anticipation of the arrival of both her brother and the Lupin's, she was met with 3 separate glares, Marlene's wasn't too bad as you could see the smile in your eyes, Molly's reminded her of a mother scolding a child, but Alice's was by far the worst. Her eyes were like burning coals, squinted and angry, her nostrils flared with every breath she took and her lips were parted, showing of her gritted teeth. Lily cowered slightly under her friend's gaze,

**Sorry** she signed, her hands stumbling against each other as she tried to form the word, her gaze dropped to the floor, she held her head down, waiting for the harsh words she was bound to hear, but all that happened was the slight brush of a rigid body slipping past hers and the soft _CLICK!_ Of the bathroom door closing.

Lily looked up to see Molly and Marlene shaking with laughter on the ground in front of her, holding on to each other in hopes of finding some form of the other, but finding none. Their screeches of laughter echoed through the dormitory, and apparently also the common room as they heard shouts from the boys asking them why they were attempting to assassinate Mrs. Norris in their dormitory, this just caused more laughter between the two girls and Lily ended up joining in.

The three girls made it downstairs and onto the couch, where they continued to laugh under the watchful eyes of the five remaining boys.

The boys were beginning to get worried about the mental health of the three, when Alice appeared from the dormitory, hair wet and face so serious it surprised the boys, seeing as her friends were in a heap before them.

"w-what's got you're w-wand in a tw-wist Al?" spoke up Marlene from her position on the sofa.

"Oh, y'know getting woken up early in the holidays, having a COLD shower thanks to your dear friend and then coming down to inform them that it's quarter past ten and that their family member has arrived" She finished her brief monologue in a posh accent before smiling at Remus and Lily's retreating backs out the portrait hole.

Everyone stared at the now closed entryway before getting up and racing after them, eager to meet their guests.

I think this will suffice for one chapter, I'm just going to leave you on a cliffie XD but don't worry, I will update this chapter to my story then start writing again :D

**Next Chapter:**

**Christmas**


	7. First Year Part 2

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING RECOGNISABLE!

I also want to thank my reviewers and anyone else who has read this so far.

_ITALICS- Thoughts_

_**Bold Italics- Darren signing**_

**Bold- Lily signing**

**Bold Underlined – Lily's notes**

Just so you know 

Chapter 6: First Year/ Christmas

Lily and Remus tore down the corridors and stairs, eager to make it to the entrance hall so that they could see Mr and Mrs Lupin, and Darren again.

The last remaining people in the school dodged out of the way of the two, crowding back into the corridor when they were gone, only to be forced against the walls again as another 7 people sprinted after them.

As Lily and Remus reached the top of the main staircase Lily became tired of running, seeing as they had run six of the seven flights to the entrance hall she decided that a ride on the banister would be faster and involved less effort.

Remus, having seen the look in her eye as she glanced towards the banister, reached out a hand to stop her.

"Lil-"

He was to late, Lily had grasped the banister with both hands before vaulting on and slipping down so fast she saw nothing but blurs of colour.

"LILY!" Remus sprinted down the stairs after her as fast as his small, 11 year old legs could carry him.

James, Sirius, Peter, Arthur, Alice, Molly and Marlene arrived at the top of the main staircase in time to see Lily flying off of the end of the banister and Remus rushing down the last of the stairs after her.

"LILY!" they all screamed, panicked by the impact of the fall she was about to endure.

Lily closed her eyes, unafraid of falling, just dizzy from the swirling colours.

As she felt herself leave the banister and fly through the air she imagined herself on her broom and let a smile spread on her face, right before...

SMACK!

She landed safely in someone's arms. She opened her eyes, Mr. Lupin's arms to be exact.

**Mr. Lupin** she spelled out, using the alphabet to spell his name as there wasn't a specific sign for the name.

"Dad!" Remus had made it downstairs and, after seeing Lily safe, ran to embrace his father.

"Mum!" Lily looked around Mr. Lupin to see Remus hugging his mum.

As Lily waved at Mrs. Lupin she saw a small figure step out from behind her.

Lily ran as fast as she could and pounced on her younger brother, knocking them both to the floor, in a tangled hug.

Breathing in the scent of Darren made Lily feel homesick for the first time in months, it was then that she realised she had tears rolling down her face into Darren's hair.

Darren pulled away, and seeing the tears on her cheeks, brushed the tears away.

_**It's okay Lil, I love you!**_

**I love you too Dar!** As they once again wrapped their arms around each other they heard numerous people clearing their throats and coughing, attempting to gain the brother and sister's attention.

Lily and Darren turned to see the large group of remaining Gryffindors behind them, looking between the embracing siblings and the mother and father that were smothering their son with kisses. Smiles were on everyone's faces.

The Lupin's, having also heard the coughing and throat clearing, turned to face the group.

"Let's all talk over a nice cup of tea in the great hall shall we dears?" Mrs. Lupin began to lead them all into the great hall and walked straight towards the Gryffindor table, giving a brief wave to the few remaining professors and students.

Once everyone was seated, Mr. Lupin suggested that they all introduce themselves.

"We'll start with me then go clockwise from there, across to Remus, and so on. So I'm John Lupin, and I work as a potioneer for St. Mungo's."

"I'm Remus Lupin, I like reading about defensive spells, and my favourite subject is Defence."

"My name is Peter P-Pettigrew and I l-like Herbology."

"I am the one and only Sirius Black, I am excellent at Astronomy." ( A/N: Ironic no ;D )

"I'm James Potter and I like Transfiguration and Flying."

"Arthur Weasley, pleasure to meet you all! I love Muggle studies! Fascinating really..."

"Molly Prewitt, and for some reason I am dating Arthur here-"

"God knows why..."

"Thank you Alice! Anyway, I enjoy Potions."

The introductions once again moved across the table.

"Alice Prewitt, I also like Herbology! Plants are kind of my forte."

"My name is Marlene McKinnon, and I'm interested to find out about care of magical creatures, but I'll just have to wait two more years for that won't I?!"

_**...**_

**Go on Darren! They won't say anything, Remus can translate, right Remmy?** Remus nodded at Lily and Darren.

_**My name is Darren, I'm ten years old, and I'm deaf.**_Darren looked at his lap, when he chanced a glance up he saw everyone smiling and waving at him, showing him that they didn't care and were happy to meet him.

It was now Lily's go.

**Do I have to? Everyone already knows who I am! And if you HAVE to know my favourite subject, it's charms!**

"And I am Christina Lupin, and I work at a small bookstore in the muggle world! Now, let us drink tea, I'm parched."

And so everyone sat to drink tea and eat biscuits. Molly and Alice argued over which biscuit was better, Arthur and Christina talked about Muggle culture and legends, Mr. Lupin spoke to Remus about something no one could hear, Sirius and Marlene talked about quidditch and Lily and Darren caught up with each other, James decided not to participate in any conversation, preferring to watch in fascination as the two siblings discussed things he didn't know of using signs he couldn't understand. He found it beautiful.

That evening everyone sat in the common room around the fire.

Mr and Mrs Lupin sat on the floor playing exploding snap with Peter, Sirius, Alice and Darren.

Remus was talking with Arthur about muggle studies whilst Molly was sleeping with her Head on Arthurs lap.

James was talking to Marlene about quidditch.

Everyone had slowly drifted off to bed, Mr and Mrs Lupin were staying in one of the vacated boys dorms, Molly and Alice had gone up to the girls' dorm shortly after, Alice supporting her sleepy sister on the way, Arthur went up with Sirius and Peter, leaving James, Remus, Marlene and Darren awake.

Remus looked up from a book he was reading and glanced around the room, across from him it seemed Darren was trying to teach James and Marlene sign language.

But something didn't seem right...

"Guys, did you see Lily go to bed?" He asked as he placed his book down.

James and Marlene looked at him shaking their heads. Darren, who had seen James and Marlene look up, also looked at Remus, _**What's wrong?**_

"Lily didn't go to bed" Remus signed, Darren looked around, his eyes widening in realisation and panic.

"Guys! Just because we didn't see her go up doesn't mean she didn't! Now I'll go check the Dorm and see!" Marlene got up and went upstairs as Remus translated what she had said to Darren, James rested a comforting hand on the younger boys shoulder.

Marlene came running down the stairs, Alice running after her, their eyes were wide and scared, "She's not there..." breathed Marlene.

James sprung into action!

"Remus go wake your parents and tell them what's happened! Marlene go get Sirius and the others! Alice stay with Darren, tell him what's happened and keep him calm. When everyones down here discuss the best thing to do, I'm going to look for her!"

"You can't go alone James!"

"I have to Remus, and I am!" with that he sprinted out of the portrait hole, the others quickly getting to do what he had asked them to do.

James sprinted down corridors and stairs, throwing open doors in search of the red head. He was racing across the entrance hall when he noticed that the door to the grounds was slightly ajar.

"Nooo..." He breathed, hoping it wasn't what he thought it was.

Lily raced across the quidditch pitch, Heading toward one of the sets of goal posts. Once Lily reached the posts she flicked her wand at the quaffle, charming it to try to get through the hoops whilst she defended them.

Lily had been practicing her quidditch skills since Novembe and had practiced all of the different quidditch positions, tricks and moves. She had found that being a keeper felt more comfortable to her than any of the other positions.

As Lily was practicing the 'Double Eight loop' she heard shouting coming from just outside the pitch., she froze, listening.

"LILY! LILY ARE YOU OUT HERE? LILY!" It was James' voice, and it was coming closer.

Lily began to panic, no one knew about her nightly practices, she quickly raced towards the stands and hid the broom under a bench. She sat down quickly and assumed a sleeping position on the bench.

She closed her eyes and listened to James.

James entered the pitch, hoping she was here as he had searched everywhere else. His eyes scanned the pitch then moved on to the benches.

Just as he was giving up he spotted a flash of red on the farthest bench from him, behind the opposite goal posts on the highest bench lay a small figure.

James raced across the pitch and up the stand stairs, running along the top bench before slowing down as he got to Lily.

James sat next to Lily's head and placed a hand on her shoulder, he gently shook her until her eyes flickered open.

James stared into forest green pools, becoming lost in their depths.

James snapped back to reality when a hand was waved in his face.

"Lily what are you doing out here! You scared everyone!"

**Sorry**

"It's ok, lets get you inside!"

James and Lily entered the common room to a lot of shouting.

"Anything could have happened mum!"

"Calm down son, I'm sure she's-"

"Fine? You don't know that Mr. Lupin!"

Sirius and Remus were arguing with Mr and Mrs Lupin whilst Alice sat in Marlene's arms, silent tears pouring down her face, she was holding Darren's hand as he trembled with his sobs.

Arthur and Molly were standing by the entrance, poised to leave the room.

"Guys? GUYS!" James yelled, getting everyone's attention.

They all turned to the portrait hole to see Lily climbing through.

Many things happened at once.

Darren and Alice ran at Lily and wrapped her in a tight hug, closely followed by Marlene and Molly.

Arthur clapped James on the back, silently approving what the younger boy had done.

Sirius and Remus sagged in relief before walking over to join the group hug around Lily.

And Mr and Mrs Lupin shot 'I-told-you-so' looks at everyone before also joining the hug.

Once everyone had calmed down, people started to go back to bed, leaving only Lily, James, Remus, Darren, Alice and Marlene downstairs.

"Lily you know you really scared us right?"

"Leave her alone Alice."

~THUMP~

"Did you just throw a pillow at me?"

"Yes."

This started a full blown pillow war between Marlene and Alice, the others dived behind a sofa to stay out of the way, especially when the pillows began to move closer to them than they were comfortable with.

Soon Marlene and Alice also went up to bed, claiming to be tired from their pillow fight and excited for the morning.

Remus soon followed, leaving the other three on the sofa's.

Lily began to get up to go to bed, when she realised something. If she went up now she would be breaking a Christmas tradition.

**Darren what are we going to do about the tradition?**

Darren looked at her for what seemed like forever before he replied, _**Could we just sleep down here?**_

**We could but it wouldn't be comfortable on one sofa!**

_**We could stay in the boys dorms?**_

"Sorry, what is going on?" James interrupted the siblings, reminding them that he was still there.

Lily grabbed a pad and paper from the table beside her and wrote him a note telling him about a Christmas tradition that she and her brother shared.

"So you both sleep in the same room on Christmas eve? Is there a reason why this tradition started?"

**We woke our parents up because we were to noisy waking each other up on Christmas morning because we would slam open doors and run across the hall so they put us in the same room from then on.**

"So...you want to share a room tonight?" James was tentative when he asked, unsure of whether he was correct in his assumptions or not.

Lily and Darren nodded.

"Well, why don't you both just share Darren's bed tonight? There are curtains and you can place charms and stuff on it if you need to!"

Lily and Darren agreed, and they all walked up to the boys' dorm together.

Christmas morning dawned to snowy grounds and chilly air. Lily and Darren woke up almost simultaneously, looking at each other before wrestling each other to see who fell off the bed first, another Christmas morning tradition of theirs.

Lily remained champion of this match, and all previous matches, when she managed to roll Darren from one side of her to the other, which was coincidentally the floor seeing as she had been about to fall off of the edge of the bed herself.

Once they had finished their match they both looked at the clock and saw that it was 6:30am, and then on a further sweep of the room they noted that they were the first people up.

Exchanging mischievous smiles they signalled to each other who would take who. Lily got James, Sirius and Peter whilst Darren got Remus and Arthur.

Lily snuck up to Peter first, grabbing the corner of the sheet he had cocooned himself in, she gave a sharp tug which unravelled the bed sheet and sent Peter spiralling off of the other side of the bed. When Lily crept around to look at him she saw him staring dazedly up at the ceiling.

Lily signalled for Peter to stay still and be quiet before turning around to see Darren holding a book above Remus's abdomen, he sent her a wink before dropping the book on the sleeping boy, causing him to jolt awake and then curl into a ball wheezing as he attempted to catch his breath. Lily and Peter hid their laughter behind their hands as Darren sent the glaring Remus an innocent expression that was not believed one bit.

Once Remus was sitting quietly with Peter, Lily moved on to her next victim, Sirius. She walked up to his bedside table and picked up a glass of water that was sitting there. She place her thump and forefinger over his nose, forcing him to open him mouth so he could breathe, then she carefully poured the water into his mouth and waited for the inevitable coughing and spluttering that were about to arrive.

Sirius sat up, choking on the water as it dribbled down his chin and covered his pyjama top. Sirius was then deposited to sit with the other two before Darren moved on to Arthur Weasley.

Arthur Weasley was sleeping on his front, with his face buried deep in his pillow and his covers tossed over his head and torso. Darren picked a discarded quill off of the floor promptly trailing it along Arthur's feet. At first there was no reaction, then the slight twitch of a foot, then his whole body began to quiver with laughter, before he laughed so hard he managed to fall off of his bed in a pile of sheets.

And then only one person remained asleep, everyone crowded around his bed, waiting for Lily to wake him, and she tried. She threw pillows at him, she dumped ice water on his head, she tickled him and poked him, she even tried slapping him, nothing worked.

**What should I do? He won't wake up!**

She addressed the whole group but only two of them understood her. Remus was the one who answered.

"I think I have an idea..." he stated hesitantly, trailing off as though he had changed his mind about telling everyone.

**What is it?**

"You won't like it!" Remus tried to backtrack out of the situation, and failed miserably.

Lily just glared at him. He looked at everyone else, they all gave him encouraging and curious nods, even Darren, who didn't know what was happening, only that it would be interesting to find out.

"Well, we could never wake him up so we sent a letter to his mother, she said that she only ever found two ways of getting him up, the first was to put marmalade just under his nose, so we've been doing that-"

**So give me some marmalade!**

"We can't!" stated Sirius "We ran out last week!" He discreetly slid a jar under the bed, hoping she wouldn't notice, he sent a silent smirk at Remus.

**So what was the other option?** Lily was getting frustrated now, she wanted to wake James up so she and Darren could wake everyone else up and open their presents.

"Well, Mrs Potter said that once, James had been taking a nap and their next door neighbours dog had licked him and that woke him up-"

**I have to LICK him! **Lily's face twisted in disgust.

"Well, kind of, the dog licked him...on the lips and so Mrs Potter said that she thinks that being kissed would wake him up..."

**WHAT! So someone has to kiss him?!**

"Well, not just someone, because, well you're the only girl in the room soooo..."

**I have to kiss him?! EWWWWW** Lily began to back away from the bed only to find her path blocked by Sirius and Peter, they both wore amused smirks as they began to force her back towards James's bed. Arthur had retreated to a corner where he was laughing so hard he had tears running down his crimson cheeks. Remus was standing in the same spot beside the bed he had been in before, looking both guilty and amused. And Darren looked confused. Lily sighed, there was no way out of this.

Lily moved to stand next to the bed and tried to lean over to peck James on the lips, only to realise he was to far from the edge so she had to crawl onto the bed and kneel next to the sleeping form, she could see all of the boys laughing at her through the corner of her eye.

As she once again tried to peck James he began to wriggle, so much that she ended up straddling him, using one hand to pin both his arms above his head and the other to hold his face still. Just as her lips got to within an inch of his face James opened his eyes, and screamed.

Lily toppled off the bed and landed with a THUD on the floor. The other boys were rolling around the floor as they laughed and James was looking at Lily with wide eyes. Not knowing what to do she pointed an accusing finger at Sirius before darting out of the room to the girls' dorms.

The boys had reached the bottom of the stairs when they heard high pitched screeching and saw Lily dart down the stairs quickly followed by a hairbrush, a stuffed rabbit and three other girls. Lily quickly hid behind Arthur as the three other girls slid to a halt, completely soaking wet.

The boys looked between the wet girls and Lily, who was smiling sheepishly at them before she darted up the boys staircase once more, closely followed by the rest of the remaining students and her brother.

They came to a stop outside of the door to the dorm that Mr and Mrs Lupin were sleeping in before quietly pushing open the door and slipping into the room, only to find Mr and Mrs Lupin standing in front of them with badly held stern expressions.

"Just what do you think you are doing?" Mr Lupin asked them, trying hard not to let his smile show through.

The children all adopted innocent faces, hoping to get away with the noise they had made.

Soon enough everyone was downstairs sitting around the tree and exchanging presents.

The marauders all received sweets and things for pranks.

Alice and Marlene got sweets from the marauders and clothes and books from everyone else.

Arthur got given muggle artefacts which he sat fiddling with for the rest of the morning.

The Lupin's got sweets and books.

Darren got books, wizarding sweets and a scarf that would change colours (from Lily).

Lily received books from almost everyone, for which she was grateful. But what was surprising was James' gift to her, it was a silver necklace with a small dove pendant on it, the dove was in mid-flight, a note was attached to it, it said **This dove has spread its wings so it can soar, spread your wings and fly free.**

Lily didn't fully understand the message, but it touched her all the same.  
>Lastly, Darren had given her two things, the first was the teddy bear she had left at home, she had had it since she was born and was glad to have it with her. The second was a picture in a frame, but the picture was a beautiful drawing of Lily and Darren together, a picture that he had drawn himself. That picture meant more to her than almost anything.<p>

That Christmas was the best of her life. She was surrounded by people who loved her, and she had fun.

That Christmas was full of snowball fights and hot cups of tea. Friends and Family. Love and Laughter. And most importantly, her brother was there for it.

**Next Chapter:**

**The last of first year**


	8. The Summer

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING RECOGNISABLE!

I also want to thank my reviewers and anyone else who has read this so far.

_ITALICS- Thoughts_

_**Bold Italics- Darren signing**_

**Bold- Lily signing**

**Bold Underlined – Lily's notes**

Just so you know J

I would also like to thank everyone who has reviewed, favourite and followed this story, it means the world to me that you all care about something that I have written! So Thanks 

Chapter 8: The end of the beginning

Soon enough it was the 4th of January and Mr and Mrs Lupin were leaving with Darren. Lily knew she would miss her brother more than anything, and it broke her heart to have to say goodbye to him again.

**I love you! **Lily signed with trembling hands, tears pooled in her eyes as Darren hugged her tightly before he turned and followed the Lupin's to one of the horseless carriages.

Lily and her friends waved until the carriage had ridden out of sight. One by one everyone went back up to the tower, but Lily and Remus just stood staring out at the empty road.

The rest of the year passed quickly. Pranks were played, arguments, fallouts, makeup's and much more, but soon enough it was time to get back on the train to platform 9 and ¾.

Lily sat with Alice and Marlene, but they were soon joined by the Marauders, as the boys had so been named. Arthur and Molly also visited the apartment at some point.

As the group sat and laughed Lily thought back over her year at Hogwarts. She remembered the pranks that had been played on other students and even on her. She had made so many good memories and friends, she didn't want to leave.

Platform 9 and ¾ was in chaos. People were running about trying to find friends and family, saying goodbye to each other for what could be the last time. Lily was stood, surrounded by friends, laughing and crying. She wished Molly and Arthur well as they would not be returning to Hogwarts, having completed their final year. And the others promised to meet up with her in the holidays, there were mentions of sleepovers and trips, and always, "If I don't see you in the holidays then their is always next year!"

And that was the last thing Lily heard before stepping through the barrier and appearing on the other side between platforms 9 and 10.

The first few weeks of the summer passed slowly, Lily spent most of her time with Darren, catching up after their year apart and playing pranks on Petunia.

They also wrote to their new friends, and eventually, in the fifth week of the holidays Lily went to spent two weeks with Alice and Marlene at the Prewitt's. Alice also invited Darren but he claimed he wanted to catch up with his school friends anyway. So, On the 25th of July Lily waved goodbye to her family before stepping into the fireplace once more.

_Right Lily, remember this time, elbows in, clear instructions._

Lily spent the two weeks with Marlene and Alice eating fast food (Lily introduced them to it and began to regret it when she saw how hyped up they got) and shopping in Diagon Alley (under the watchful eye of Molly, and the not so watchful eye of Arthur Weasley). They also witnessed Arthur's proposal, and Molly's hysterical response.

But all too soon it was time for her to go home, not that she didn't want to go home, she was excited to see her parents and Darren again, so she said goodbye to her two best friends and the happy couple, and returned to her home in Ireland, greeted by her family with plenty of hugs.

The last weeks of summer passed quickly and soon Lily was in Diagon Alley shopping for school supplies, she was doing so alone because her parents were spending the day together and Darren had gone to meet friends in muggle London, and it's not like Petunia would go anywhere with her, she's too much of a 'freak'.

As Lily was about to walk into Borgins and Burkes to grab the books she's need for second year she heard footsteps behind her, turning she saw Mrs Lupin running up to her.

"Lily! You need to come with me, quickly!" She panted before dragging Lily into the Leaky Cauldron and towards the fireplaces.

After Lily had arrived home Mrs Lupin spoke quietly with Mrs Evans before disapparating. Lily sat in silence on the sofa, staring at nothing, her father holding her hand as their mother paced the room.

The phone began to wring...

**Next chapter:**

"**She couldn't have missed the train! You do realise who you're talking about, right?"**


	9. It all ends

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING RECOGNISABLE!

Sorry it's been a while, but I started college this year and it weighed me down a lot, but hopefully I'll be able to write more now. Also, Sorry it's short, I was figuring out how to continue during this chapter.

_ITALICS- Thoughts_

_**BOLD ITALICS- Darren Signing**_

**Bold- Lily Signing**

**Bold Underlined- Lily's Notes**

Chapter 9: It all ends

Mr and Mrs Evans looked at each other across the room, before Mrs Evand crossed to the phone.

The ringing stopped. "Hello?"

Lily only heard mumbling from the other end, her father squeezed her hand, but she didn't understand why.

"Yes this is Mrs Evans"

Lily watched as her mother fidgeted with her necklace, twisting it between her fingers as she held the phone to her ear, listening intently.

As Lily watched her mother's shoulders relaxed visibly and a look of relief crossed her face, she looked over at her husband and youngest daughter, "They found him" She whispered as she waited for the person on the other end to hang up.

Mr Evans let go of Lily, kissing her quickly before getting up to head into the kitchen, probably to get his shoes so he could go pick Darren up. He wasn't there to watch as his wife's face dropped, and the phone fell to the floor and Lily rushed to stop her mother from following it, placing an arm under her mothers shoulders, trying in vain to hold her up, wishing she could scream for her daddy.

Slowly the drifted to the ground, holding each other as Mrs Evans' body was wracked with sobs and Lily held her.

"So where do I need to go to pick him-" Mr Evans cut off as he stepped into the room, dropping his shoes as he took in the picture of his wife and child on the floor, his wife's face streaked with tears as his daughter just looked confused.

"Helen?"

Mrs Evans looked up, tear tracks marked her cheeks as she trembled in the arms of her youngest daughter, her baby, who was so close to Darren, and had a connection with him, who would feel the wrongness of the situation.

September 1st came by and found the Marauders, Marlene, Alice, Molly, Arthur and the Lupin's standing on Platform 9 3/4 searching around for the last member of their group, Remus, Arthur and James (who seemed to have grown feet over the summer if anyone asked a grumpy Sirius) looking over heads in an attempt to catch sight of the red headed girl they'd all grown to care for over the past year.

"We have five minutes left, she'd be here by now!" Alice moaned, everyone else nodding along with concerned expressions on their faces, all knowing of Lily's aversion to being late for anything.

"Maybe she's just waiting to get through the barrier? I'm sure she'll be through soon" suggested Mrs Lupin, grabbing hold of Remus' trunk and heading towards the train, "We should at least get you six on the train, we can get her on when she gets here-" She turned to look at Remus who was just opening his mouth to mutter a 'but what if' and silenced him with a stare "and she will get her." Remus shut up before helping his mum get everyone's luggage on the train.

When everyone was situated in a compartment, worriedly looking at the time, Molly and Arthur stated their need to go, they were trying out cakes in London for their wedding which was due to happen as soon as they had saved enough.

Before leaving Molly turned away, spotting two equally red headed men in a corner, heads bowed together, she narrowed her eyes "Oi! Gid, Fab, stop plotting and get over here to say goodbye to Alice!"

The two men rolled their eyes before turning and walking towards the four adults crowded around the compartment.

2 Minutes left.

"Ally dearest-"

"sister, leaving us already?"

Alice and Molly shared a look, Molly leaning in to kiss her sister on the cheek, knowing the thetrics that Gideon and Fabian enjoyed.

"Do enjoy Hogwarts this year."

"Cause lots of trouble."

"So disappointed in you last year."

"Ow, Molly! We were just saying!"

"Anyway, bye Alice dearest, have fun at Hogwarts!"

"And don't forget that Hogwarts toilet seat you promised us!"

The two grinned and waved before apparating to get away from Molly's second swat at the Prewitt brothers. Molly rolled her eyes before she too waved and dissaparated with Arthur.

1 minute left. The train whistled.

"Mum where is she?!"

Mrs Lupin looked around for the little red head, not seeing her she turned back to the crowded compartment full of worried twelve year olds. "Maybe she just got on somewhere else, you'll just have to look for her, I'm sure she's somewhere." She smiled at the reassuringly, before leaning in to give her son a quick peck on the cheek, and standing back to wave with her husband as the train pulled away from the platform.

The six of them looked at each other, before splitting into three to search the train, Alice and Remus staying to keep the compartment, whilst James and Marlene went one way, and Sirius and Peter the other.

"Exploding snap?" Alice suggested as they waited, pulling a pack out of her pocket, Remus smiled, before taking the cards to shuffle them.

"So how do you pl-"

BANG!

Alice was still giggling at a soot covered Remus (who lost by a landslide)when Sirius and Peter returned, they shook their heads and the four sat in silence.

It seemed like forever before the compartment door slid open once more , revealing a hopeful Marlene and James, who's faces dropped as they scanned the compartment.

They sat in silence.

Just before they reached Hogsmeade station Marlene spoke up.

"Where is she?"

Everyone looked at each other, shrugging.

"Maybe she missed the-" Remus began.

"She couldn't have missed the train! You do realise who you're talking about, right?" Alice cut him off, standing as the train slowed, before hopping off the train, leaving the others to follow her to the carriages, each wondering what had happened to Lily Evans.

**Next Chapter:**

**"Hope is a wonderful thing to have Miss Prewitt."**


End file.
